I'd had my 439 falkens since 2007 and realised they were past their best, with only 4mm tread left - in deep snow they were starting to struggle and last weekend they needed the help of chains to get up to altitude in deep snow slopes in the pyrenees, when others had managed to get to the top on just winter tyres.

Just got a good set of 270M M3 wheels from another e90poster (thanks dave) which I've put some Vred Wintracs on. I was happy with the Falkens when they had decent tread (now Eur120 each in 225/40/18), but thought I'd try something different (vreds Eur150 in the same size).

No rubbing at all with my standard set up, despite the large ET20 offsets. Drives well, but we'll see this weekend how it copes with snow in the mountains. Chains will be a squeeze if needed, but I have a plan for that, and the tread looks like it will cope well even on a decent slope.

One thing I would recommend, don't leave your winters on when you don't need them - not for any driving reasons, but just so they last as long as possible - I clearly did ok getting 6/7 winters out of mine, but several years I left them on well into spring and almost summer, just as i didn't get around to changing - in hindsight I wore them down for no reason (though of course my summers would have worn instead). Its obvious, but winters do really need decent tread to work well in snow.

So you stole my wheels!
Kidding - you beat me to it by a good few days

You could make me feel better by posting a few more photos though. As Dave had already sold you these i've ended up buying a set from Germany, just waiting for them to arrive now. Planning to go 225/235 on summers.

So you stole my wheels!
Kidding - you beat me to it by a good few days

You could make me feel better by posting a few more photos though. As Dave had already sold you these i've ended up buying a set from Germany, just waiting for them to arrive now. Planning to go 225/235 on summers.

I might get some photos in some snow this weekend, we'll see.

Clearance in the rear with 235 should be OK, though bear in mind the offsets are ET20 on an 8J rim, compared to e.g. rear 225M ET39 9J wheel - the latter is 25mm wider, but with 19mm more offset, so sticks out approx 7mm less than the basic 270M rim (before taking tyre into account)

I think they look really good, better than the 225M which I also really like.

...loads of grip, didn't need chains even though I parked on a slope. Impressed with the vreds, very good, no wheelspin at all when getting out of the space which was quite a surprise to be honest. There was so much snow it was piling up everywhere from attempts to keep roads passable.

...one thing I couldn't fix was the fact that the road from Andorra to France was closed, hence ended up heading to Spain to get home...